


Midnight Concussions

by fayolin



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 11:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15435663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fayolin/pseuds/fayolin
Summary: These were originally Shadowrun Characters, but I've rewritten the world enough that they aren't so much anymore.  so...anyway.  I rescued this from a Deviant Art account I'm deleting, so I thought I'd post it here.  wooo!





	Midnight Concussions

The clouds had decided to drizzle as he stepped off of his bike on the top floor of his parking garage. As he walked towards the stairwell, he thought about standing out in the rain long enough to rinse off one of the layers of fluids that had soaked through his clothing. But as he figured that that process may very well take an hour or so, and every time he closed his eyes he could see the giant cobras slithering out of the labs defense system, he decided that being able to walk all the way to his bed was a better deal. At least in his bed he probably wouldn’t feel like snakes were curling around his legs.

 

The fog of pain and fatigue walked him down to his apartment, though he was not nearly far gone enough to get within ten steps of any of his building-mates, any of them a potential attacker in his weakened state. With very little ceremony, he made it to his door. Staring at it for a moment, he started to dig in his pocket, resting his aching head against the frame while he peeled the shock glove off of his right hand with his teeth before digging next to his groin for the keys. He kept one eye open, just in case the phantom sounds of rustling snakes were more corporeal than his imagination. Gripping his keys firmly, he brought the first up to the lock.

 

At which point he dropped the key ring. And swore. A lot.

 

Picking up the keys again, he opened his battered eye and focused on the door. Pushing himself off the frame, he looked in disgust at the six locks. It would take him three seconds to break though the door, but then he couldn’t close it behind him, and all he really wanted to do was hide for a while. And the only way to get his meat body into that room was to unlock the door. Which meant keeping his hands still enough to open the lock. Which meant he was not going to fuck up again.

 

Taking a deep breathe, he put the first key in the lock, following closely with the next, until finally, he had unlocked all of the locks. Pushing back into the hallway, he opened the door and stumbled inside. 

 

As soon as he was in, he turned and worked the six locks again from the inside, also adding the two chains and the internal deadbolt with a flick of his wrist. He was home. Now, off to bed.

 

Walking through his apartment, he tossed his head back and forth, in a futile attempt to clear the buzz that was humming deep within his skull. Walking past the library (the locks still tight) and the kitchen, he stopped in his doorway for a second to regain his balance before going any farther. And sighed to himself in frustration.

 

Godammit. Tobias was in his apartment.

 

Not looking around to see where the intruder was hiding, Aelif just kept going on as he had planned. He peeled off his soaked shirt, the blood, sweat and ichor pulling the little hairs on his spine, and tossed it onto the tiled bathroom floor. Feet dragging, he didn’t bother to tuck the hair behind his ears as it fell in half-dried chunks into his face, but instead stumbled to the foot of his bed and waited for a moment. One of his eyes was nearly swollen shut, and his right hand was sprained in a useless claw. He looked down at his bed; the sheets all pulled over to one side, and tilted his head. After a moment of swaying contemplation, he stumbled forward, allowing his shins to hit the footboard as he fell into the bed. Curling up on his side, he grimaced slightly to himself at the stickiness of the various fluids on his body as they caught on his futon cover. But all thoughts were leaving his head as he closed his eyes, willing himself to fall asleep quickly.

 

“That crap is never going to come out of your mattress.” Came a voice from the doorframe. Aelif didn’t twitch.

 

“That’s why there is a cover on it. I’ll burn it later. Get out of my apartment.”

 

Tobias smiled halfheartedly into the darkened bedroom. “When did you see me?”

 

A muffled sigh came from the bed as Aelif stretched out his legs a little. “On the corner of Grand and Main,” he said, rolling onto his back. He closed his eyes in an effort not to whimper. “When the cat hissed at you. I knew you were following me. And I knew you were here because of the kitchen; you left the tea out on the counter.”

 

Tobias leaned back to glance into the kitchen, still smiling to himself. The tea tin was pushed about a half inch farther out than normall, from where he had grabbed enough tealeaves to make a pot when his friend had gotten home. He had decided against that idea when he heard Aelif fight with his front door lock. After the first minute of fighting, Tobias put everything back, but in his silent movement, he must have been more careless then he thought. He stepped into the kitchen and moved it back to where it belonged, grabbing the washcloth from its folded place on the side of the sink. As he walked back into the room, Aelif cracked his one good eye open to glare at him. 

 

“I’m tired, dirty, and pissed off,” said Aelif, narrowing his eye in an attempt to look more menacing. “I am not in the mood to mess around with you. Get out. I want to go to sleep.”

 

“You are dirty enough that it is going to hurt removing that mess later if you don’t do something about it now, and you may have a concussion. I can’t let you go to sleep.” replied Tobias, moving closer to the bed. He stopped when Aelif’s body tensed, and waited for the bedridden man to not try and kill him if he got too close.

 

“Don’t care,” said Aelif, after a moment. “Not waking up would be preferable to what I feel like right now. At least then I would be resting.”

 

Tobias ignored the self-aimed jab and moved closer to the bed. He moved slowly, but not in stealth, just waiting to see what Aelif’s reaction would be. Tobias couldn’t tell how serious his friend was at the moment; it was very possible that Aelif might attempt to kill Tobias for not just letting him sleep it off. Tobias would hate to have to subdue Aelif because he was being stubborn about staying alive, but if that was what it was going to take, so be it.

 

But his worrying was for naught. As soon as he got within a foot of the bed, Aelif breathed a couple deep and pain ridden breathes and relaxed with a sigh. Tobias wasn’t thrilled with the deep resignation to his fate that he saw in Aelif’s eyes, but he was much more comfortable working with that than the more homicidal alternative. Even though he was fairly sure he would be able to disarm and incapacitate his delirious friend, fishing a dagger out of the sheets, or worse, his gut, would make the whole process harder.

 

“Can I get you to sit up?” asked Tobias, kneeling by the side of the bed. 

 

“No.” Aelif said quietly, his skin covered in sweat and his pupils dilating in interesting patterns.

 

“Fair enough,” said Tobias, looking over the room. “But you really can’t go to sleep. So, either I help you sit up here, I can go get a chair so you can not be laying down, or you deal with me pouring water all over your bed so it’s no longer so comfortable. What is it going to be?”

 

His water comment got a reaction, but not one he was hoping for. Aelif’s chest muscles tensed, as if he was trying to sit. He got about halfway to a sitting position, when a breath caught in his throat and caused Aelif to turn into a coughing ball. Rolling much faster than Tobias had anticipated, Aelif fell off his mattress, hitting the floor with a sickening thump and with a mostly swallowed whimper, curled into a ball. Which then did not move.

 

Tobias peered over the side of the bed to see Aelif curled up in the fetal position, half under the bed. The mostly matted hair was sticking straight up from the injured man’s scalp, at a rather painful looking angle. A soft keening of pain came from the unfortunate pile of flesh.

 

“Hmm…” said Tobias, kneeling beside Aelif. “We should maybe try a different approach, eh?”

 

Carefully, Tobias hooked his arm underneath Aelif’s, pulling him into a sitting position. The coughing that had thrown him off the bed earlier returned, and Tobias allowed his chest to be covered in a vaguely bloody spray. After a couple of pain filled breaths, Aelif started to try and pull away, but Tobias was firmly hooked into the center of his chest. As soon as Aelif’s energy was not being spent on keeping himself breathing, Tobias started to stand them both up.

 

It was most likely a humorous sight, the two ninja’s stumbling to the bathroom. Aelif would stop, have a coughing fit, and then try and push Tobias away to walk on his own. Tobias, for his part, would wait patiently until the struggling became ridiculous, and then would continue to move. After about ten minutes of stumbling, they reached the edge of Aelif’s bathtub, where Tobias stopped and sat his friend down. Aelif leaned back against the tiles around his tub/shower unit and closed his eyes.

 

“Now, we have a second battery of choices,” said Tobias, looking around the bathroom. “I can start the water to draw a bath and help you get clean, I can start up the shower and help you get in, or I can leave and let you figure it out.”

 

“Out,” hissed Aelif, cracking his eyes open slightly. He pawed at the dark towel hanging to his left, pulling it towards himself and draping it over his knees.

 

“Fair enough,” said Tobias, standing and walking towards the door. He looked back, his face very serious. He waited until Aelif was looking up at him, the color draining out of his face by moments. “But I’m going to give you fifteen minutes, and then I’m making sure you are ok. If there are any loud noises, I’m coming in. I’m warning you now, so that you aren’t surprised when it happens. See you in fifteen.”

 

Before Aelif had a chance to respond, Tobias turned and closed the door behind him. Aelif felt anger swell up inside him, giving him the energy to turn on the water and put the stopper in the drain. It also, barely, gave him the energy to stand up and lock the bathroom door. He then stood, leaning against the sink, the rage leaving him just enough energy to not fall into a coughing fit that would have tumbled him to the ground. Which, considering it would have brought in concerned Tobias in right on top of him, was probably for the best.

 

Looking at himself in the mirror, he marveled at the collection of bruises underneath his ribcage. Lifting his left arm over his head, he poked at the rather large bite that curved into his armpit. Each tooth mark was a black gash in his grey skin, but the whole circle was gaining a yellowish caste, either from the clotting blood or the viper’s ichors that still covered him. He looked down his body, noting in particular the ruined state of his pants, and swore under his breath. He wasn’t going to be able to put these back on. And there was one annoying, stubborn man between him and his not being naked. Which was one man too many, in his opinion.

 

Aelif looked at the door for a moment, and felt his stomach sink. Looking back at the tub, he could have screamed. But he knew what he was going to have to do. He was going to have to do something he never thought he would have to do. Cracking open the door enough to look out it, he steeled himself.

 

“Tobias?” he said, trying to project without yelling. He could feel his face going red by inches. 

 

“Yes?” replied the other elf, looking back in surprise through the door to the main room. His face slipped into careful blankness and waited for Aelif to continue.

 

“Could you hand me a pair of pants?”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ten minutes later, Aelif was sitting in a ridiculous looking tracksuit, his clean hair being slowly braided as to keep his back dry. He had started this process standing, letting the water drip out into the draining tub, but his legs had grown more and more shaky as he stood there. So, making sure there was not water outside of the tub, he sat in the corner, a towel placed between him and the cold of the porcelain of the tub rim.

 

He raised an eyebrow at his outfit, trying to remember why he still owned it. He had gotten it for an undercover job, one where he had to look normal and non-threatening. He had picked it out quickly, checking only to see that it was a neutral shade of grey, and that it was about the right size. It was not until he put it on much later that he saw the cutesy little anime-style bunny over the left lapel, looking sweet and innocent as it hopped through an open glade of butterfly infested flowers. But he hadn’t had time to exchange it for anything less embarrassing, so he wore it anyway. And until this point, had thought he threw it away afterwards. Obviously, he had been mistaken.

 

Finishing up the braid, he looked down at the tracksuit once more. Not only was it unbearably cute, it was defective. Even though he was dry, and the room was filled with post-bath steam, none of the heat was remaining around him. Aelif started to shake slowly, and he rubbed his hands up and down his arms. Stupid tracksuit, he thought. Couldn’t even have the decency to keep him warm. 

 

Not wanting to fall asleep again, Aelif had sat in the most uncomfortable place he could think of in the bathroom, the floor beside the tub. The tub was cold, the glazed white surface seeping all the heat out of the air, making an icy rock-like pain in his side. Though he placed the towel beside him to ease the heat leaching, he found his head was getting particularly cold. So bundling the towel up, he placed his head on top of it, tucking his fingers up in the cloth to try and keep them warm as well. This didn’t to help much, but it was a slight improvement.

 

As his eyes slipped closed, it occurred to him he should move around and wake up a bit, but then he chided himself. He was obviously too uncomfortable to fall asleep.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Tobias looked up at the clock. Fourteen minutes and fifteen seconds since he had dropped off the tracksuit and started some tea for the two of them. Eight minutes since he had decided some crackers and cheese would probably be a good idea for Aelif, what with his sporatic tendency to not eat. It was five since he heard the water drain out of the tub. As much as he wanted to just go in there now, he knew his word was worth something when it was given.

 

He also wasn’t quite sure he was done laughing at the expression on Aelif’s face when he had solemnly handed him that ridiculous outfit. and he was fairly sure that Aelif would take any snickering personally.

 

As the second hand rounded the seven, Tobias started off towards the bathroom. He would have felt less concerned but for the extent of Aelif’s injuries, and the fact that he hadn’t heard hide nor hair of him in a couple of minutes was starting to make Tobias’s paranoia seep through his calm demeanor. He stood in front of the door for a moment, took a deep breath to center himself, and knocked.

 

Silence answered him.

 

He knocked a little more insistently, but still there wasn’t any kind of response. Rattling the door handle, and knowing even as he reached for it thatit would be locked, Tobias sighed. He muttered an apology before he started his eminent destruction, and concentrated his strength onto the door handle. With one swift turn, the door popped open, and the handle breaking off in Tobias’s hand. Tossing it down onto the carpet, he opened the door slowly and peeked his head in, only to be greeted by the heat of the bathroom, hitting him like a hot wet hand. Blinking rapidly to try and clear his eyes against the temperature change, he scanned the room. 

 

Aelif was curled up in the corner, his legs curled under him and his hands tucked up in the towel he had used as a pillow. A look of concentration was slowly wearing off his face, as sleep made him more and more relaxed. He obviously had not been asleep for very long. 

 

Tobias smiled a little to himself, and raked his hand through his hair. Aelif was going to be so violently irate in about two seconds, but for right now, he looked very peaceful. 

 

Trying to walk with as noisily as possible, Tobias quickly covered the span of the bathroom. Kneeling down beside Aelif, he cleared his throat loudly and waited. As his third attempt at a subtle cough failed, Tobias gently reached down to shake Aelif’s shoulder.

 

It was a sign to how worn out Aelif was that he opened his eyes slowly and looked over at Tobias. Not a twitch of violence in him, he looked confused and disoriented, scanning the room unsteadily. Shaking his head, he grimaced slightly.

 

“I fell asleep, didn’t I,” he said, not really asking. Tobias nodded and helped pull Aelif to his feet. Aelif squinted his less swollen eye for a moment as he straightened up, regaining his bearings, before letting Tobias help him back into the main room of the apartment.

 

Two chairs were set up in the main room, one covered in enough blankets to smother a toddler. In between the chairs was a table that Aelif did not recognize, with a plate filled with cheese and toast, and a pot of tea. The thought of food made his stomach turn, but in his tired state, he wasn’t going to make a fuss. Which felt like it should seem weird to him, but he honestly couldn’t remember why.

 

Tobias helped Aelif to the chair, trying not to show concern for the shudders of shock that were making it hard for the younger man to sit still. Tobias concern grew when tucking the blankets in around Aelif caused no grumbles of protest. In fact, Aelif seemed to play along with the fussing, unconsciously lifting his legs and shifting his weight to make the comforting of his tortured body easier. In the whole time that Tobias had been observing Aelif, he had never seen him so complacent about anything. He wasn’t sure what to think it now.

 

“Well, it’s still not safe for you to go to sleep,” said Tobias, making sure that Aelif’s eyes were still tracking as he stood up. “But if you can manage to eat something, and drink at least two cups of tea, you’ll do as much help to your body by sleeping as you are risking it by going to sleep. But I warn you, I will be waking you up every hour to make sure you don’t fall into a coma. Is this acceptable?”

 

Aelif looked at him with sleep-greedy eyes, trying hard to weight his desires with the going rate of transaction. His stomach churned at the thought of eating anything, but he supposed that the crackers would be the least offensive of a range of things he could try and eat. Because really, was putting some food in his stomach really harder than any of the things he had fought earlier that day?

 

“I think I can do that.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It all went remarkably well , until Aelif had his hands on his second mug of tea. Tobias had slowly and surely pushed piece after piece of fruit and cheese towards the shaking hands of his compatriot, trying very hard to not make small talk. Aelif seemed to be thinking very deeply and with intense focus about something, and Tobias’ one attempt at swaying him from his internal reverie had been met with a look of confusion that was disconcerting enough that it still Tobias’ tongue. Whatever Aelif was thinking about, it was taking all the energy he usually spent on being civil.

 

As he was starting on that prescribed second cup of tea, Aelif looked up at Tobias, and as if fog was clearing off the bay in the morning, a sense of understanding filled his expression. Licking his lips a couple of times, he set his cup down carefully on the table in front of him and took a steadying breath.

 

“What time is it?” asked Aelif, sinking himself back in the chair. Even though he was reclining, something about Aelif’s expression was more alert then any other action Tobias had seen from his friend in the last half hour. 

 

“It’s about three in the morning,” said Tobias, looking down at his wrist. “Are you ready to sleep?”

 

“Yes,” said Aelif, moving the blankets around him weakly, attempting to get up. Tobias quickly hopped up to help him, and within moments Aelif was standing on his feet, albeit a bit unsteadily. Shaking off any help from Tobias, he began to stumble to his bedroom.

 

“I need to be up again at nine,” said Aelif, not bothering to look back as he reached the doorframe. “So I’m setting my alarm for eight. Thanks for your…”

 

“You’re what?!” asked Tobias, the shock and anger in his voice making Aelif turn in surprise. Tobias was standing behind the chair, his hands clenched into fists, looking at Aelif with disbelieving eyes. He advanced towards Aelif, causing the injured man to back through the doorway and into the bedroom. The back of his legs hit the bed, and he fell sprawling out on his bed, still unsure what was going on. 

 

“Aelif,” said Tobias, the grinding of his teeth almost audible from across the room. “You have been a hairbreadth away from passing out all night. Your face looks like you’ve been slammed repeatedly into a wall, and you can barely move your right hand. Why do you need to be up again at nine?”

 

“Because I need to get back to the team,” said Aelif, speaking slowly, as if he had been cornered in his room with a unexpectedly psychotic stranger. “We found some very important information at the lab, and if we don’t act on it soon…”

 

“You can’t meet them!” said Tobias, his rising voice cutting Aelif off. Raking his hand through his hair, Tobias glared at Aelif, his limbs moving in the jerky fashion of great irritation. “You are not whole. You are not able to function. You need to…”

 

“Don’t tell me what to do!” said Aelif, moving to the very edge of the mattress. It was telling that he did not stand, but merely straightened his back in defiance. “I need to be there. They need me there!”

 

“They won’t be able to use you in the state you’re in!”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“You’ll only hurt yourself more…”

 

“SHUT UP!”

 

Aelif had closed his eyes, and was gripping the edge of the bed with his one good hand. Aelif’s mouth twisted as he scrunched up his face, blocked out whatever Tobias had to say with every bit of body language he had. Tobias almost stepped forward to shake his stubborn eyes open, when the phone rang.

 

Aelif looked over to the phone stand, his anger distracted by the shrill ringing. Seeing that the handset was missing from the base, he swept his gaze angrily across the room. The ringing continued, and Aelif scoot-stumbled to the head of the bed, where the base sat on his nightstand. Hitting a series of buttons, the ringing stopped and a speaker popped into audible action.

 

“Hello?” he asked, pointedly ignoring that Tobias could hear the conversation, in fact ignoring that he was in the room at all. An angry sigh stopped him from complete victory, but he was more or less able to focus on the phone.

 

“Hello, Aelif. It’s Johnny,” said a gruff, tired voice from the other end of the line. “Any difficulties getting home?”

 

“No,” said Aelif, lying down on top of his covers. A tremor had begun in his muscles, and it was only through pure stubbornness that he was able to keep it out of his voice. “No tails, no snakes, and not a whole lot of traffic. We meeting tomorrow morning?”

 

“That’s what I was calling about. It seems Iris is going to need a day or two in the clinic, so we’re not going to push farther ahead until she’s back on her feet.”

 

“Is she ok?” asked Aelif, a little too tired to put concern in his voice. Fortunately, it seemed that Johnny had been working with him long enough to realize that the fact he asked in the first place spoke volumes to his empathy.

 

“She’ll be fine when the dump shock clears out of her system,” replied Johnny, sounding very tired himself. “That last bit of attack on the scientist’s hacker goon squad seems to have hit a little harder than she thought. She checked in with a guy she knew, and he’s helping her run diagnostics. Nothing really scary, but it needs to be done.”

 

“That’s good then,” said Aelif, his eyes slipping shut. Tobias moved a little closer to the side of the bed and gave his friend a hand slipping under the covers. Aelif allowed him to assist in a mostly silent fashion. “If that’s what she needs, I’m sure we can wait a couple of days.”

 

The small scoff or frustration from Tobias was enough that Aelif cracked on eye to glare at his annoying helper. Tobias just ignored the glare.

 

“Yeah,” said Johnny, the faint sound of a glass hitting the edge of the receiver. “Anyway, I’m gonna crash out. I’ll get in touch with you the day after tomorrow with an update.”

 

“Sounds great. Talk to you then.”

 

Johnny hung up without saying goodbye, something Aelif seemed to be expecting. Even though Tobias had successfully gotten the blankets pulled up almost to his chin, Aelif reached out to the stand and hung up the dial tone that was sounding through the room. With a little more fumbling, he moved a little switch that turned his phone from ringing to silent. This seemed to be the last of his energy, because without opening his eyes, Aelif’s arm relaxed into the table, making a weak bridge between it and the bed. It was a testament to how exhausted he really was that he did so much as twitch when Tobias moved his arm back to the bed and quietly left the room. Even as Tobias turned off the overhead light, not a movement came from the unconscious ninja.

 

Tobias was wandering around the apartment, grabbing small things and cleaning up, when his eye was caught by a blinking red light. The missing handset from the phone was sitting out by a pile of books, and it looked like it was ringing again. Without thinking about it for more than a moment, Tobias grabbed the phone and answered it.

 

“This is Aelif’s apartment,” said Tobias quietly, moving away from the bedroom doorframe. “May I take a message?”

 

“Tobias?” asked the familiar voice of Johnny. “Is that you?”

 

“Yes, I stopped by earlier, and stuck around to lend a hand. Can I help you? Aelif has passed out, and I have no intention of waking him for a while.”

 

“Oh, please don’t,” said Johnny, sounding very tired himself. “I was actually hoping to get you. How is Aelif, really?”

 

“Other than seriously stubborn? Not great,” replied Tobias, putting the teacups in the sink. Looking over at the bedroom, he sighed. “But nothing some rest won’t fix, hopefully. And some first aid after the shock wears off. I’m keeping an eye on him.”

 

“Well, that’s good at least,” said Johnny, with a sigh. “I’ll let Iris know she was right.”

 

“Iris? I thought she was clinic-bound.”

 

“Well,” said Johnny, sounding vaguely amused. “You know as well as I do that Aelif wasn’t going to let his own serious injuries hold back the team.”

 

“Tell me about it,” said Tobias, frustration slipping into his voice despite his attempts at sounding neutral. “He was practically ready to kill himself to get back on his feet by tomorrow.”

 

“I figured as much. Which is why Iris and I came up with a little white lie that would give everybody on the team enough time to get themselves back together. Aelif especially.”

 

Tobias sat in silence for a moment, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. As the moments stretched on, he heard another clink of a glass and what might have been a quiet chuckle.

 

“You,” said Tobias, “are a brilliantly devious man. And you have my thanks.”

 

“Ha!” laughed Johnny, the first bit of joy in his voice that Tobias had heard. “Coming from you? That’s a serious compliment. Call me if anything serious comes up with Aelif, but unless you need anything, I am going to reacquaint myself with my seemingly forgotten bed.”

 

“I think we’ll be fine over here,” said Tobias, looking back to the silent darkened bedroom. “Get some rest.”

 

A dial tone met Tobias’s ears, and he looked down at the handset in minute gratification. It seemed that he was not the only one to have to deal with his friend’s stubborn nature. He was not surprised, per say, but it was fascinating to see someone else step so deftly around the confrontation that had been boiling in the bedroom only fifteen minutes before.

 

Taking one last sweep around the apartment to turn off all the lights but one, Tobias deemed his cleaning job to be good, and sat down on the end of the couch. It had been a long night, and was beginning to feel the weight of sleep that had slammed so forcefully into Aelif. Making sure his watch was set to go off in an hour, he pulled himself up to use the restroom. Walking as quietly as he was able, he entered the dark bedroom and made his way past the sleeping Aelif. 

 

Even though there was no movement from the bed, Tobias felt it was polite to make as little disturbance as possible. Gently shutting the door, he moved around mostly by touch, not bothering to turn on the lights. As he rinsed off his hands, he heard a muffled coughing from the bedroom. Wiping his hands on his pants, he cracked open to door.

 

In the soft light leaking in from the living room, Tobias could see that Aelif had shifted a little, curling up slightly on his side. Tobias stood there and looked in at the sleeping man, making sure that everything seemed ok. There was a regular movement of the blanket up and down, but otherwise, the bed was still. Waiting another long moment, Tobias crept back to the main room.

 

“Tobias?”

 

A whispered question froze the other man in his steps. Tobias turned back to see Aelif’s one good eye open and looking straight at him. The reclined man made no move to sit up, so Tobias moved closer to the bed so he didn’t have to.

 

“Can I get you something?” he asked, kneeling down beside Aelif’s bed. 

 

“I’m good,” said Aelif. He was silent for a moment to let the irony of the statement sink in before continuing. “I just wanted to say thank you before my lack of pain delirium convinced me that my pride was more important. Because you know, it does that.”

 

“Aelif, you really don’t need to…”

 

“Yes, I do,” he said, letting his eye close again. “And though I’m fairly sure I’m dreaming now, I wanted to say it. I mostly fail at this keeping myself together bullshit, and it’s nice to have some help. So there.”

 

Tobias sat there for a moment, trying to figure out if Aelif had fallen back asleep, or if he was merely faking it. After five minutes of kneeling, Tobias silently stood up, and went to the couch to try and catch a half hour of sleep before his alarm went off. He couldn’t keep the dumb little grin off his face, but as it occurred to him that with Aelif unconscious, he didn’t really have to. It was moments like these that made him feel a little less like a creepy stalker, and more like a slightly messed up person who had fallen for a different-but-equally messed up person and doing the best he could. Which, all told, was a much better place to be.

 

With that thought, Tobias flipped off the light and sank into sleep.


End file.
